Act 2 - Bargaining[]
With A Bared Sword[]
Chapter 22[]
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Castle Davion, New Avalon
Crucis March, Federated Commonwealth
19 February 3056
“Excuse me, your highness.” Alison Campbell knocked lightly on the door before opening it and entering Kate’s office. “You have an alpha-priority message from the Archon-Prince.”
“Alpha-priority?” Kate asked, unsure she’d heard that correctly. That meant ComStar had been paid the excessive fees (and NAIS had, since Operation Scorpion left the HPGs across the realm temporarily in the hands of the AFFC, a pretty good idea what it actually cost in operational terms) to forward the message all the way here from Tharkad, rather than waiting for the usual schedule of transmissions. It shaved days off the delivery time - weeks or months if the message was being sent to somewhere that wasn’t already a busy communications hub. “It can’t be a reply to my last letter then.”
The Zhanzeng de Guang attacks had made for a mess on her return to New Avalon. Everyone was angry about them but the fact was that little more could be done. Kate agreed with Victor about treating them as criminals not combatants, although she wished he would have at least made the formal statement on them himself. The current situation created the impression that he did not care.
“I couldn’t say,” her secretary admitted. “It’s classified for your eyes only.”
“Bloody hell.” She shuffled her paperwork aside - it was ‘just’ CMM reports she had to be up to date on. Nothing that would shake the realm, but the New Avalon CMM was short-handed with the better part of three regiments worth of forces out in the periphery, so Kate was faced with more work than had been the case for a while. “Alright, I see it,” she added, checking her comms and entering her code. “Thank you for letting me know.”
Alison left politely - she was a cousin of sorts, by way of Kate’s paternal grandmother - a fact Kate hadn’t known when she picked her for the post. Over a decade older than the princess, she was efficient but always seemed on the edge of trying to mother her, drawing back every time the impulse became evident.
Setting that relationship aside as the door closed, Kate opened the message. There were several attachments, but the main message was a video letter. Victor had been better about sending them rather than letters now that he was at Tharkad and not constantly on the move. She keyed the command to open it.
“Kathy,” her brother greeted her. “There’s been trouble on Lyons. No, Peter’s not hurt -”
She’d reached out to pause the message on hearing the name of the world but didn’t manage to until the clarification reached her. That was indeed where Peter had been posted and it took her a moment to steady herself. Losing Dad… in this very room, had been bad enough. Then Mom…
Shaking herself, she was no longer a child, she re-started the message from the beginning.
“Kathy, there’s been trouble on Lyons,” the image of Victor repeated. “No, Peter’s not hurt but he’s in trouble. I can’t entirely blame him, he was set up, but right now he’s hovering on the edge of a court martial and we need to de-escalate the situation.”
“There was an incident near a pacifist commune associated with Free Skye,” the message continued. “Someone shot at him from their buildings and he did what he was trained to do: returned fire. The whole place must have been wired with explosives, because it went up like a firework factory. Bellerive burned to the ground and footage was sent out that made his shots seem unprovoked.”
Kate had to stop the message again. She walked to the discreet fridge and poured ice into a glass, then added just a sliver of the good whisky. She wasn’t much of a drinker but right now she had a feeling she could do with a mild relaxant. A sip of the contents calmed her nerves and she set the glass back on the desk before resuming the replay.
“Peter had the presence of mind to keep possession of his BattleROMs, so we can prove his innocence if it comes to that, but in the court of public opinion the first news out tends to win out. We’re very fortunate that Free Skye cheaped out on their communications and tried to forwarded it via an official government account. ComStar picked it out as unusually large for one of the messages, found an encrypted data package and decided to ask me if I really wanted it sent.”
Going directly to the Archon-Prince? They must have looked at it first, Kate thought. Then again, if anyone really believed that ComStar didn’t have the option to read every message sent via their HPGs she would be more than happy to offer them a bargain to buy a bridge over one of the Martian canals.
“We have the opportunity to get the first shot in,” her brother continued. “If we showed the BattleROM, then we’d have to acknowledge that whatever else, Peter did fire on a civilian settlement. I’d rather not do that so instead what’s been suggested is that we repackage the footage as promotional material for a holovid. That way if Free Skye manage to get it into the media we can discredit them as ‘re-editing’ someone else’s footage. They’d be a laughing stock.”
That seemed like a good plan to Kate. It was even possible that if Free Skye tried that they could be sued for breach of copyright, which would be a fitting punishment for them trying to frame her brother for a massacre.
Finishing the message, the princess checked her contacts list and then made a call. “Mr DeMarce, this is Katherine Steiner-Davion.”
The man stammered a greeting, apparently not having expected royalty to call him.
“I believe you said something to the effect of how you were having trouble getting funding for one of your proteges.”
“Yes, your highness. I have a great deal of faith in Walt, but the major studios don’t seem to think his talents are worthy of them.”
“I had a chance to look at his work on my way back from June,” she lied. “Would he object to taking over someone else’s project?”
“If it gives him a chance to show his skills, I am sure Walt would work on anything you want him to,” DeMarce assured her.
Kate had her doubts, but it didn’t have to be a good holovid. “All we have is the pitch and some footage intended for a trailer, no cast or anything,” she told the talent scout. “The script draft was lost when the previous team… disbanded energetically, if you take my meaning.”
“I do indeed,” he lied, no doubt already speculating about who this involved. “It sounds like Walt will have considerable freedom.”
“Yes. The pitch was a Skye mechwarrior framed by Capellan provocateurs for war crimes to be clearing his name during the Skye Revolt.” She scribbled that down on her notepad as she invented it off the top of her head.
“Ooh, that sounds political,” the rotund man cooed. “Walt adores political. It’s wonderful advertising. Ah, I do have to ask about budget.”
Kate had only the vaguest idea of what a holovid cost to make, but that was what her staff was for. “I’m waiting for that to be confirmed, but I’ll have it sent to you with what we have footage wise. If you can get him to put together a rough cut trailer from the footage, any costs there will be fronted by me personally.”
“Wonderful. I’ll call him right now,” DeMarce confirmed. “He will be so grateful, your highness.”
“It’s my pleasure to help one of our artists,” she assured him and cut the call. The blond had only spoken to DeMarce twice, but everyone who attended any gathering she was at had a file she could access on little to no notice. You never knew when a connection like this might pay off.
Turning on her comm console’s camera she set it to record. “Victor, thank you for letting me know what happened. I’ll send you the trailer as soon as my contacts get back to me with it. In the meantime, if you want Peter out of the line of fire you could send him to join one of the new March Militias being formed up here. Broken Wheel and Kathil could both do with junior officers and it would look good as a gesture of support for them…”